Progeny's Descendants: Progeny, #2

By Ray Jay Perreault

Over 1,600 years after leaving an Earth made hostile by pollution, humanity developed Faster Than Light Travel and wanted to go home. The first ship enters Earth's orbit and finds a pristine planet welcoming them, but they also find something else living there. Their first alien contact surprises them.

Generations of humans were told of Earth's beauty, and they found an intelligent race of artificial beings living on what they thought was their home.

 

Can they have Earth back?

 

How will the confrontation between humans and robots end?

 

Reader's Comments

 

This is SIFI at its best.

You will not be able to put it down

Exciting to read, keeps you on your toes, you have to think about a lot of things,…

 

Buy this book and understand how future humans deal with the computers they have created.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ray Jay Perreault
• Release date: Jan 12, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201955083

Ray Jay Perreault

Ray is a prolific author that enjoys science fiction. He feels that genre is fertile ground to understand ourselves and where we're going. He has written a mix of Sci-Fi stories, but tends to focus on stories with computers, post-apocalyptic themes and stories with strong morals, loyalties, and drama. Share his Sci-Fi enthusiasm as part of his reader's club. Ray was a Senior Pilot in the US Air Force and traveled to 27 countries around the world. His C-130 assignments ranged from landing in a farm field in Paraguay to entering East Berlin and experiencing Russian controllers giving him false headings. Ray's other assignment was as a T-38 instructor pilot. "The T-38 is the best plane in the word; two pilots, two engines, and two afterburners." Two of his remarkable experiences included training the first class of female pilots and receiving an Air Commendation medal for saving a T-38 that blew an engine during a touch and go, saving himself and the student pilot on board. After his Air Force career, Ray enjoyed a long and exciting career with Northrop Grumman. During the 28 years at Northrop, some of the highlights included work as the Lead Wind Tunnel test engineer on the F-20, F-23, F-18, and B-2. His career progressed to be the Deputy Manager of Engineering for the Tri-Service Stand-Off Attack Missile (TSSM). Later he was responsible for all the computers at Ryan Aeronautical, then all the computers on the B-2 Bomber program. Ray hopes you enjoy his work, and he looks forward to sharing many new and exciting stories.

Book preview

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Introduction

Ray Jay Perreault Free Book

Please Provide Your Opinion of this Book

Other Interesting Works by Ray Jay Perreault

Part 1 Earth Was Tired

Part 2 HSV#2 Launch

Part 3 The Party

Part 4 The Jump

Part 5 The Meeting

Part 6 The Return

Part 7 Conformity Council Reacts

Part 8 One More Celebration

Part 9 The Return

Part 10 In Orbit

Part 11 On the Ground

Part 12 HSV#4 Return

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Ray Jay Perreault Free Book

Epilogue

About the Author

Books By Ray Jay Perreault

Novellas By Ray Jay Perreault

Short Stories By Ray Jay Perreault

Contact the Author

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Other Interesting Works by Ray Jay Perreault

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Winner 2016 Apple Literary eBook of the year

Ray Jay Perreault creates amazing stories with believable and endearing characters

Like I said, excellent story!

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I loved the evolution of a peaceful civilization that was forced to learn how to fight to survive.

I thought the battle scenes later in the story were great.

Part 1 Earth Was Tired

Earth’s Council of Environmental Sciences was meeting in a large amphitheater 200 feet below the surface of Lake Geneva. None of the attendees wanted to be there. Word of the meeting had been passed to all of the population centers on Earth, and only 52 people were able to safely travel to the site. The remainder of the attendees were forced to participate through electronic means. Earth was tired. She had endured many eons of neglect, ambivalence and in some cases attacks. Her climate had changed a great deal. It was true, throughout Earth’s life the climate had many swings, but those natural swings turned into violent ones that initially matched, then created new extremes. The purpose of the meeting was to review and accept a horrible hypothesis.  The downward spiral of the deteriorating climate was well beyond the tipping point, and it would continue to a point where human life was not sustainable.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to welcome all of you and those of you that are participating through video feeds. If my information is correct, we have personnel participating from our centers beneath many of the capital cities as well as our six underwater habitats in each of the major oceans. Unfortunately, we have intermittent contact with a couple of the underground cities so their participation might be limited.

As you were told through the meeting invitation, we have come to the point where we have to make a decision. Many of you have already spent time supporting the different committees looking into atmospheric trends, results of the population displacement study, the committee on infectious disease control and lastly the committee coordinating the spaceship development. So, when I make the statement that the conclusion of all of our studies is that Earth has become hostile to the human race, none of you will be shocked. That is why we are here today. We must take the results from all of our studies and make one final decision for the future of our race. Over the last century, our population has decreased in a precipitous manner. If any action is taken, it must be done immediately if a viable amount of us will be able to leave and find another home.

Based on the results of all of these studies we must acknowledge the one lasting fact, which is our planet is no longer able to sustain life. I wish that we could have met face-to-face, but travel conditions are so difficult that wouldn’t be wise. Because of that, I want to hear from any of you that disagree with the conclusion of our studies. But let me warn you if you do disagree, disagreement won’t be enough. Our situation is so dire, you must present an alternate plan.

The room and electronic connections were quiet. Those members in the room looked at each other, shook their heads in a reluctant agreement or just sat in their seats looking at their hands folded in front of them. The members sharing the electronic connection were just as quiet. After the pause had become uncomfortable, the speaker continued.

I hear no disagreement. I declare that we must leave Earth and find a suitable planet. I also declare that all production facilities and remaining resources be used to build the large fleet of spaceships that have been described by the transportation committee. If there are no other comments, this meeting is adjourned, and may good fortune and God’s smile fall upon on all of us.

The many creatures that lived on her surface and in the depths of her oceans did the best they could to adapt during the later years. Many became extinct because they couldn’t adapt as fast as the climate was changing. Those that had adapted, only found new and greater challenges and most of them finally lost the battle.

During Earth’s later days, one of the few remaining creatures was the one that did the most damage; mankind. Mankind’s impact was debated early, but it soon became a minor issue. The changes were so profound and so disastrous for the mix of species, ultimately who caused it wasn’t as important as what was necessary to survive.

Aside from the degrading weather, the viral and bacterial world was reacting in the same way as the humans. The struggle to survive occurred at all levels and in many cases the enemy was perceived as the humans. Plagues and pandemics became common place for those remaining on the surface and even those who sought refuge underground and underwater were beginning to feel the onslaught.

A sad day occurred when mankind realized that the conditions on Earth were caught in a downward   spiral. The living conditions had driven some of them underground and into aquatic cities under the water. Those who couldn’t afford to move and remained on the surface were perishing in huge numbers.

It was learning that the end was coming, and there was nothing that could be done to reverse the trend, that forced a decision to be made to leave the Earth. It wasn’t a decision based on optimism of looking for a new home but on the pessimism of having to leave to survive.

As soon as the decision to leave was announced, society began fragmenting. It broke into three groups. Those who didn’t want to leave along with many who suspected they wouldn’t be selected, those who wanted to leave and hoped they would be selected and those who expected to be selected. Unfortunately, society continued the segmentation and stratification as the groups became suspicious of each other, the barriers between them became larger and more difficult to cross.

Mankind was fortunate as their technology had progressed to the point where they had some options. That was the good news, the bad news was, in such a long time of research, they hadn’t found any suitable planets within a reasonable distance. Faster than light travel was still theoretical and only in the dreams of scientists. They knew any travel to a suitable planet would be long and hazardous, but the trip had to be attempted. If only a portion of those leaving Earth survived to land on a suitable planet, then there was the chance the human race would survive.

Departure

In spite of the deteriorating conditions on the planet, they were able to build enough ships capable of interstellar flight to carry a significant portion of Earth’s remaining population. The good news was they had the ships, and the bad news was there weren’t enough.

Earth had deteriorated to the extent that living on the surface was almost impossible. A large percentage of the Earth’s population was lost over the years while the ships were built.

The only fair method to determine who was going to leave was through a series of lotteries. During the lottery process, percentages of key disciplines were segregated apart from the general population so any long duration flight would have the right skills to support survival during the trip and upon reaching their new home. After the lottery had decided who went and who stayed, the stratification of the population became complete. Those not going rioted, and those that were going built barriers higher.

When conditions got to the point where they were ready for departure, there was no announcement, there were no parades, there were no departing speeches. The first of the ships loaded and they looked more like a group of survivors abandoning ship than the last of the human race leaving their home planet. The departures continued as the ships were loaded and left orbit.

The effort to load so many ships caused the departure to occur in waves. They were called clusters and over the months many clusters were loaded and sent on their way.

Cluster Admiral Ronda P. Hartsfield stood next to the last shuttle to leave the Kansas City Underground Launch Facility. She didn’t like what was happening in front of her. The last of the refugees from Kansas City were boarding her shuttle. They stood in lines, and each of them looked like they had lost a long battle. There was no jubilance, there was no laughing or joking. They just moved forward when their time came to board one of the last shuttles to leave Earth.

125 Feet above them, the wind was blowing at 125 MPH and the ambient temperature was 115 Degrees. Not bad for 1 AM in January. The last of the die-hard survivors that decided to stay on the surface hadn’t been heard from in over a month. Everyone thought they had lost the battle and were gone.

Mr. President, these people look beat. They are the last of the people from underground shelter 44C. Once they’re onboard, we’ll be able to leave.

Admiral, this is a horrible day in Earth’s history. I wish that things weren’t so bad, but we have no other options. How are the other shuttle launches going?

There are still a handful launching from different cities around Earth. I think there is only about a dozen left that need to meet up with the transports in orbit. The transports are waiting for us, and when we join up, we’ll depart. All of the other ships have left orbit and are following the planned flight path to our destination.

I wish we knew where we were going. Launching off like this and just heading in a direction scares the hell out of me.

I know, Mr. President. But we have little choice. We can’t stay here because of many reasons. Our only chance of survival is to leave. Our destination was picked based on the highest concentration of Earth-like planets in the region. No one wanted to spend all our resources and go to a system where there MIGHT be one planet, because if we were wrong for some reason, then we’re all dead. We have to follow the odds and go where we should have the most options.

That all sounds great, but over a three hundred years journey on these ships? You and I will both be long dead, our children will be dead, our grandchildren may be dead, and we’ll be on our third or fourth generation before we get there. None of that sounds very encouraging to me.

Sir, I know that. But we have no choice. We can’t continue to live underground and underwater. We will die slowly, but we will die.

Ma’am, the last of the people, are on board, said the loading master as the last of the tired people entered the shuttle.

Thanks. Sir, it’s our turn, the Admiral said as she indicated for the President to board the craft so they could launch.

Leaving the Earth

Admiral Hartsfield walked onto the bridge of the US5323, commonly called KC-42, which was the craft’s call sign. As she looked around the command room, all eyes were upon her. The Command Bridge performed a two-fold function. It was the Command Center for KC-42, but it was also the Coordination Center for that cluster. Because of the many functions that needed support, the center had two levels and Admiral Hartsfield's Command Station was positioned between decks so she could see each of the stations and their holographic representation of their system’s status.

Each of the crewmembers manning their stations for the huge ship knew the significance of what was happening. They were all scared and desperate, or else they wouldn’t have been there. The Admiral took her time and walked to each of the stations and spoke to her crew. Some of them were near breaking down, and they were all under tremendous pressure.

US5323 was a huge ship. It was typical of her class and represented the best of Earth’s technology and, unfortunately, the last of it. Earth used the last of her resources, the last of the skilled people and the last of the time available to build. There was nothing left, but to leave. Admiral Hartsfield didn’t pay attention to how many ships there were, to her it didn’t matter. She was responsible for her cluster of ships, and there were many other Admirals in charge of their small portions of the fleet. There was a person responsible for the entire fleet of Earth ships, but he had left five months ago and was in no position to help them or direct them. All of the ships were going to one point in space, and the string was strung out over many parsecs. It would take 25 years for them to accelerate to full speed and the overall plan was simple enough. They were so stretched out, there was very little that they could do to help each other, so the fleet traveled in clusters. Each of them varied in size, but they had the transport ships with the people onboard, there were also livestock ships, repair ships and storage ships.

Admiral Hartsfield and the other ships preparing to leave orbit were the last cluster to leave Earth. The first of the cluster left over two hours ago and, KC 42 would be the last one to leave orbit and the last one to see Earth.

Admiral Hartsfield knew that one of her challenges was keeping her crew together and to get the departure done in a safe manner. It was difficult for her not to look at the view screens as everyone else on the bridge was doing. They were recording in their memories what Earth looked like and they likely would pass those memories on to their children and grandchildren one day. But today it was hard for them to keep their emotions in check. Some of them were crying, and the Admiral let it happen as long as they were doing their job, and their emotions didn’t interfere.

Even the Admiral was susceptible to the emotions generated by leaving Earth. She fought the urge, but just before departure, she had to take a moment and look at the view screens. She knew that what she saw wasn’t the best of Earth. She had seen images, growing up, that showed the snowcapped mountains, the azure seas, and the blue skies. She knew that what she was looking at wasn’t how it was it was supposed to be, it was how it had become. Earth looked angry, there were massive storms that covered most of the surface. The sky had a definite yellow tinge to it and what little she could see of the seas showed a surface that was turbulent with a definite light shade of green. It wasn’t the image that she had grown up with, but it was the image that she had become familiar with. Regardless Earth was their home and leaving it was painful. The last pictures in their minds were of a beautiful planet that was mistreated and was lashing out at those who had treated her badly.

Are we ready to leave orbit? came out of a point deep in the Admiral’s throat.

Yes ma’am, was the emotional reply of the ship’s captain.

Then, let’s go, was all she had the strength to say before they left the orbit of Earth for the last time.

125 Years from Earth

Mrs. Tierney, why did our ancestors treat Earth so badly? asked Todd, who was sitting in the front row of the 3rd Grade Class of the George Washington Primary School, 27th Deck, KC 42.

Todd, they made many mistakes which lead to the end. There were decades of growth and overusing the resources. Everyone thought that Earth’s resources were unlimited, but they weren’t. By the time they saw how the damage was changing the planet, it was almost too late to do anything. For a long time, they ignored the problems, then they talked around them, then they blamed others. Finally, it was clear that the climate had gone too far, and it was going in a bad direction for everyone. It’s not that they treated the Earth badly, it’s just that they focused on their needs first and assumed everything else would be ok, but it wasn’t, and they learned the lesson too late.

Just as she was finishing the lesson another hand went up in the rear of the class, Mrs. Tierney why do we study Earth? All we’ve seen are pictures. It doesn’t seem important to us anymore. We live on this ship, and our parents and grandparents lived on this ship.

To know where we are going, we must know where we came from. We are living here now. We have 824 clusters of ships making this journey and yes we still have many years before we reach our destination. The only way we can concentrate on what’s in front of us is to remember the sacrifice that everyone is making. The first of the clusters are a full light year ahead of us, and they are going through space that no human has ever seen before. We are following them because we all want to get to our new home. We all must do our part so that all of those who are on this journey will have a chance for a future. That is our destiny, to enjoy what we have so that others will have their enjoyment also. Earth is all that we had, and because we were terrestrial animals, I think that it is important to remember where our beginnings were.

Ok, this is the end of this segment of school today. You can leave and go to the exercise area, Mrs. Tierney said.

Before she finished the sentence, the children were moving in a swarm towards the door, and she laughed, knowing they likely didn’t hear anything after ‘end.' Now that her half day was over, she would finish the day off by transmitting her 3D lesson to another ship in the cluster.

She liked teaching that way, it was the best way for children to get instruction from multiple teachers and also the teachers in the cluster could change topics and work with different children. Physical movement between ships in the cluster occurred rarely, there was too much risk, and it was done only in critical situations.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Willy, hand me that sponge..., will ya? asked Kinkaid Robinson, or Kink as his friends called him.

Willy threw it down the crawl space then went back to his duty of cleaning the interior of the return air system for KC-42.

Boy, is it me or is this shit getting harder to wipe off? I don’t remember it getting this thick before, pointed out Kink.

Just shut up and finish up, I’ve got to meet some of the guys in the section room, and I don’t want to be late.

Kink bore down and continued to wipe the sticky slime off of the walls of the return air system. For some reason it seemed to change over time, it never was that slimy before. He wanted to spend some time in the section room also, before heading back to the small set of rooms that he shared with his wife and their two allocated children.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Captain Williamsport, we’re getting the weekly status message passed down from the clusters, do you want to hear it now? asked the communications tech who was on duty at the time.

The bridge of KC-42 was lightly manned. All they had to do was monitor the key systems and on occasion communicate with others in their cluster. It wasn’t a ship in the sense that they had control over where they were going, it was a huge human island moving through space at .6 Light Speed. They monitored the key systems and then changed shifts, then the next crew would monitor the key systems. It went on like that day after day.

A couple times a week, there would be some important communications between the ships in the cluster, but generally, it was just a transmission between two ships in the void wanting to confirm that someone else was out there. On rarer occasions or, at least, weekly, there were messages that came down from the lead clusters, and they were passed between each of the clusters in sequence until they finally reached the last cluster, the one that KC-42 was in. This was one of those occasions.

Yes, go ahead and put it on the speaker, replied Jonas Paul, the current captain of KC-42.

Attention all Earth Vehicles. This is Earth 1 transmitting our weekly status update. We have traveled 61.19606 light years from Earth, and we calculate that we have 117.3309 light years remaining in our journey. We are encouraged that we’ve able to maintain a velocity slightly above the .6 Light Speed that we planned the trip on. Up to this point, we’ve been able to accelerate to .611961 Light Speed. Let us hope the higher velocity continues. We have a couple of announcements. The first one saddens us all, Christin P. Hershel, who was the last passenger that was born on Earth passed away in her sleep two solar days ago. We will remember her and all of the recordings of her interviews will be passed from ship to ship until we all have them available. Her passing reminds us of Louis Daniels, who we all remember as the last adult with any memories of Earth and his sad passing almost 10 solar years ago. All of his records are recorded in the ship’s log and have been shared among all ships. I’m also saddened to pass on that some of our ships have been experiencing significant technical difficulties. In most cases we’ve able to work within the clusters to fix the broken systems, but in some cases we’re running low on some of the key materials. We pray that this rate of failure won’t continue. I’m also concerned about another development. There have been some isolated outbreaks of unusual illnesses in some of the clusters. I don’t think there is any cause for concern at this point, but we do ask you to work within the clusters to monitor everyone’s health and pass forward anything that is significant. I also want to remind the cluster leaders to pass forward any key information that should be shared among the entire fleet. I’m sorry that passing information forward to the lead vehicles takes so much longer than when we pass a message back but, unfortunately, we’re constrained by the speed of light and messages going forward take more than twice the time a message going backward does. Please remember we are in this together and through that cooperation we’ll make it to our new home.

250 Years from Earth

Admiral Joyce Herbold sat in the command chair and looked around the bridge of her ship. Only about half of the stations were manned and only a few minutes from the watch change when her exec officer would relieve her for the night watch. It was quiet time, one to reflect on her life, where they were, where they were going and their chances of success.

The wall behind her showed holographic pictures of the previous Admirals of their cluster as well as pictures of the Captains for KC-42. On the left was the picture of the first, her name was Rhonda Hartsfield. As Joyce looked at her eyes, she wondered if the first people leaving Earth had any idea how difficult the journey to their new home would be. It wasn’t a simple issue of just jumping on a spaceship and going to the new planet, it was perhaps the greatest challenge in the history of the human race.

In actuality, the trip was turning horrendous. The consensus was that they had bitten off more than they could chew as the old saying went. The challenges of putting a planet bound creature into a huge ship were not fully understood, and Admiral Herbold and the others making the journey were the people paying for that miscalculation.

The problems